What the Pharisee should have prayed

In Luke 18 Jesus relates a parable illustrating how arrogance short circuits worship. A Pharisee (read very religious person) and a tax collector (read the worst person you can think of) play off each other in dueling prayers. Here is the pharisee’s prayer; "The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ While reading this today I thought, “What should his prayer have looked like?” Here is my stab at it. Lord, you know me well. I don’t extort money out of people like this tax collector does, but I love to guilt trip people into giving. I judge them if they don’t give. I judge them if they do give since its never enough. I think they should be like me, however, I'm judgmental and arrogant. You know I am meticulously fair, but have no grace or mercy. I always want my pound of flesh. You know I’m faithful to my wife not so much out of love but because I’m afraid of AIDs or some other disease. I love to remind her of how faithful I am. You know I fast twice a week because I want to buy Your love. I know I can’t buy your love because it is freely given, but I still prefer to think I’ve earned it in some way. I tithe a tenth of everything so that I don’t feel guilty hoarding everything else that I have. Truthfully Lord, I may not look like this tax collector outwardly, but inwardly I’m full of death and darkness just as much as he is, maybe more so. You have every reason to call me just a prettily decorated grave. Lord, I need your grace and mercy as much as this man. I do not want to live this sterile, unfruitful life any more. I wish to live an open, inviting, humble life and leave my pride of how good I look crucified on the cross with you. I desire that grace and mercy become the crown and joy of my life. When I fast may it be with a joyful heart looking expectantly to You for spiritual nourishment. When I tithe may it be gladly, freely knowing that all I have is yours. When I see others like this brother tax collector may I revel in the scandalous grace that you have poured out on both him and me through the Lamb that was slain, Your Son Jesus. Amen. Pastor Nathan

The Good ole Days

“Why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Ecclesiastes 7:10 Longing for the good old days? According to this passage there is no such thing as the good old days. They may be old but they were not good or at least not any better than any other day. Good is simply an illusion we cook up to make us think things were better than they really were. Let me give you a couple of examples. Funerals. That’s right funerals. We immediately forget all the bad and remember all the good. I’m not saying that is bad but there is something a little unrealistic about it. I remember one lady who suffered terribly under her husband. He was mean. He was unfaithful and he wouldn’t hold a job. When he died I’m sure it was a huge relief to her. However, it was strange to me when she began to talk about him as if he were some sort of hero. I’m sure she was trying to protect his memory to her five young children he left her to raise by herself. As for me I was just thankful I didn’t have to do the funeral and tell the truth about him. Growing up. It was always better when we were growing up. Of course growing is just another way to brag about everything. We brag that it was worse when we grew up, “Up hill both ways to school.” We brag about it being better than today, “Everyone got along in those days.” It is wonderful to have great memories, but there is no need to canonize them. The good old days were just that, old days where good and bad lived together just as they do today. Evil existed then just as now. God’s grace and mercy abound just as much today as they did in those days. Regardless of whether the good old days were good or bad there is no way to go back, we have to go ahead. The best days are not behind us but ahead of us according to scripture. There is much grace ahead of us as well as behind us. The promises of scripture are not just for us but also for our children, Acts 2:39. I hope you are looking forward to what God will do in your life ahead. The Christian life is exceedingly positive. We believe that we will experience more of Jesus in the future than we did in the past, Philippians 1:6. We believe one day we will experience him completely face to face, 1Corinthians 13:12. We have every reason to rejoice and to hope in the goodness of the Lord. So then I would encourage you to encourage one another. We have a lot of families going through some difficult times who need to know that God is working out some good things on their behalf and they can’t see it right now due to their circumstances. Hope in what the Lord will do among us. Trust the Lord knows what He is doing and be glad for how He will work it out among us. Our best days are yet to come.

Which Old Testament Laws Should I Keep?

What Laws Am I Supposed to Obey? Over the last couple of months I have been asked the question, “What Old Testament laws am I supposed to obey?” I can answer that fairly simply. You only need to obey one law. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.” (Mark 12:30) Jesus does add, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but really that is just part of loving God. If you love God you will love your neighbor, because God loves your neighbor, (John 3) and if you love your neighbor you love God. (Matthew 25:40) Jesus makes it clear in the “Sermon on the Mount” that our actions need to reflect a deep love for God from the heart. So, for example, the law says that we should not murder, but if we go deeper and love God from our heart, we will not hate, which is the root of murder. (Matthew 5:21,22) The law says that we are not to commit adultery with our bodies, but if we go deeper and love God from our heart, we will not lust, which is the root of adultery. (Matthew 5:27,28) So, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. It doesn’t take much to realize that God is pursing us in a deep, profound, complete way. Mere actions are not enough. God wants actions motivated by love and affection for Him. That still does not answer the question as to what we do with Old Testament laws, such as the prohibition of sewing two different kinds of cloth together or an ox falling into the ditch on Saturday (the Sabbath). So here is how the church fathers have looked at this question. The law has been divided into three different categories. There is the ceremonial law, which are laws pertaining to worship and the tabernacle. There is the judicial law, which would be laws pertaining to everyday life of the nation of Israel. And there is the moral law, which is summed up in the Ten Commandments. The ceremonial law, we believe, has been completed. Jesus came and fulfilled all of the ceremonial law by his life, death and resurrection. There is no need to offer a wave offering of the first watermelon in your garden or sacrifice your prize sheep for your sins. Jesus was that gift to God for your sake. We believe the judicial law was given to the nation of Israel for a particular purpose at a particular time. You will notice from a close reading that even some of the judicial laws changed as the circumstances of national Israel changed. While wandering in the desert, the Israelites had no need of laws concerning boundaries or building homes. When they entered into the land and became farmers and merchants, instead of nomads, then they were given laws pertaining to their new situation. For example, the laws pertaining to homes or boundaries of property are not given until the book of Deuteronomy. The laws changed to reflect their new situation. The point is simply that the Biblical record demonstrates the judicial law was for a particular time and place. The moral law, the Ten Commandments, is the heart of the law from which all the rest of the law is taken. We believe the moral law to continue as God’s will for us. If you need a law to obey, other than love God, the Ten Commandments will do well. Now some would say that the law of Sabbath has been fulfilled in Jesus and we need not obey it. I think the law of Sabbath is still very much part of God’s desire. Clearly the New Testament writers thought it was very important for God’s people to continue meeting each week. They believed it necessary to be flexible with those from pagan backgrounds whose circumstances or obligations might prevent them from observing a strict Sabbath, (Colossians 2:16) but nowhere do they encourage the early believers to stop gathering and worshipping God. (Hebrews 10:25) Summing all of this up. I believe that the center of the law is to love God and love our neighbor from the heart. Our best external guide to help us love God and love our neighbor would be the Ten Commandments. Our best internal guide is the Holy Spirit. In Galatians where Paul is addressing similar questions about what laws we should keep, he says in Galatians 5:16 “But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” So what laws am I supposed to obey? The answer is the law of the Spirit, which is to love God and love people from the heart.

Five Reasons Jesus gave a gift

After some reflection on Sunday’s sermon about Jesus giving the better gift as our perfect high priest. I’ve decided to include five reasons why Jesus gave the better gift. Here it is.



1. He knows God better than we do. (Matthew 11:27) Jesus knows God the Father more intimately than anyone else in the universe. He knows exactly what He needs and wants in a gift. Not to imply that God needs anything, but the one who knows what God needs from us to be reconciled to Him, the one person who knows that better than anyone is Jesus.
2. Jesus knows how impossible it is for us to give the right gift. (John 2:24,25) We are stingy, resentful, poor, inconsistent, cynical, distrustful, and an even longer list of unpleasant things. Even at our best we are so limited by our shortsightedness and resourcelessness we haven’t a chance. Do we really think we could come up with a decent gift for the King of the Universe? I don’t think so. Who knows our nature even better than we do? Jesus. He hung out with us long enough to get more than just a taste of humanity. He knows we don’t have a chance to pick the right gift.
3. The only one who can afford this kind of gift would be Jesus the son of God. (2 Corinthians 8:9) A one time gift that would cover our debt to God is going to be an immensely expensive item. Apparently even Jesus had to voluntarily exhaust his resources (became poor) to be able to provide for such a gift.
4. Only Jesus had the access necessary to deliver the gift. (Hebrews 8:1) If a gift is given the gift must be delivered and not everyone can just walk into the inner courts of heaven and drop a gift. Jesus seems to be the right one given he came into the very center of the highest court in the universe and just sat down.
5. Jesus wanted to give a gift that would guarantee you would have the Father’s undivided attention. (Hebrews 9:11,12) Jesus had the resources and the ability to provide an airtight gift that would completely capture God’s attention. He took that gift, his own life, and placed it before the throne of God the Father Almighty for you.

Suzanne, ( my wife for those of you who might not know) has put up with a lot of undeserved grief from our children. She was a cheerleader while they think of themselves as “true” athletes. It is all done in good fun. Since the kids travel through life blissfully unaware that their mother is much tougher than they think, I thought I should bring to their attention that their mother hiked twenty miles through about 6000 feet of elevation change, with a 30 lb pack on her back without complaining. The summer between our freshman and sophomore year of college she came out and backpacked with our family in the White Clouds, a mountain range north and west of Sun Valley Idaho. The first night we camped in the shadow of Castle Peak towering 11,814 feet above what is called the Chamberlain Basin. Our camp was about where the photographer took this picture. We woke up to the sun climbing over this peak each morning. As I was explaining to my children about their mom hiking this rugged country and washing her hair in the frigid waters of mountain lakes it made me think about God’s majesty. In Psalm 8:1 we read O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. The word for “majesty” means “wide.” The idea is something like standing on the edge of the ocean and thinking, “This is much wider than me. This is amazing.” That feeling of smallness you get standing on the edge of the ocean, or the Great Plains, or in front of a mountain like Castle Peak, or watching the night sky in clear Colorado air, is what we call majesty, a sense of bigness and smallness all at the same time. The second day I climbed Castle Peak and was able to see miles and miles in every single direction I looked. The vista was huge. My feeling was smallness.

There is something healthy feeling my smallness and the largeness of that space. Scientist look at the vastness of the universe and feel proud that they can kind of measure it. They say, “This is so big how can there be a god in here.” David looks at that enormous space and thinks the opposite. He thinks, “How can there be a man in this huge space.” (vs. 4) The feeling of majesty is healthy to us. Feeling our smallness gives us the opportunity to see the “wideness” of God and know our place. When things are too wide for us, we can feel the wideness of God, the majesty of God and know that God is very mindful of our tiny place in the universe. When we are feeling small we can look to the largeness of God. When we are feeling too big we can look to the largeness of God. There is something about the contemplation of God’s majesty that puts everything in the universe in its place. That is called worship. Each Sunday as we come to worship God I would encourage you to leave your worries, your burdens, your need even to see and hear from God, and simply spend the time giving glory to God in Majesty. One hour and fifteen minutes a week to put all aside and just acknowledge the majesty of God and nothing else. My guess is that everything else that you were worrying about will begin to fade away in the “wideness” of God.

Ten signs of self effort

Someone asked me Sunday after the sermon, “How do I know when I am using self effort instead of working in the power of Christ?” That is a great question. I actually had a list before I cut it out of an already long sermon. So here is my list of possible ways to tell if you are living out of self effort. Before I jump into my list just remember we are wired to self effort as a duck is wired for water, or as Tim Keller likes to say, “We still believe we are living under the covenant of works rather than the covenant of grace.”

So here goes, ten signs you might being living out of self effort.

1- You act first and pray second. Prayer is a second thought. “Oh Lord, I guess I should have asked
you first but here is what I did. Bless it, please!” (finish with your best sheepish grin)
2- You have a lot of ownership in your action. You are devastated when it fails and you are very proud if it succeeds.
3- You find yourself very anxious about the details of life, friends, money, whether something is “successful” or not. Frustrated with your inability to control all of the little things of life.
4- You find yourself laboring under and unlimited sense of obligation. You have a hard time laying down issues or problems that were not yours to pick up in the first place. And you have a difficult time discerning the difference between the two.
5- You find yourself like a man with a sword. If a particular move doesn’t work you think that the same move only swinging harder will work. Putting more energy into an action that didn’t work the first time surely will work the second time.
6- You find yourself cursing more in your head (or out loud) than giving thanks to God.
7- You have an overpowering need to list your accomplishments or what you did right in any given situation. You have a very poor ability to assess your actions and motives.
8- You find yourself not very flexible or teachable in a given situation.
9- You find yourself under almost satanic temptation during periods of difficult effort. You cannot say, “no” to yourself. It is almost as if you feel entitled to sin, because you’ve been so good.
10- You lack a real passion for God, life and grace. When others talk about God and His grace you find yourself being cynical or bitter.

So what do you do when find yourself living out of self effort? Admit it. Stop pretending and acknowledge it to God and let Him pour out his love on you which He poured out in Jesus His Son. Receive that blessed forgiveness and grace. Know that you are perfectly free without any obligation to anyone but God in His wonderful love and grace. Pray without ceasing as you embark on a new journey of reliance upon God.

Eli Masech, Losing a great friend

Eli Masech

The saying is )trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 1 Timothy 2:13

21 years ago I walked into a small Sunday School room in a church in the northern suburbs of Chicago for an interview. It was an interview to be an associate pastor of two small churches yoked together in south central Wisconsin. Sitting across the table from me, asking me questions about what I thought about Sunday School programs, was I ready for small town life, and was my wife interested in the ministry, was a white haired mustached man who looked like a close personal friend of Santa Claus. That is where I met Eli Masech. Suzanne and I were hesitant about taking the job, small town, small salary, but Eli said to us, “It may feel like you are out on a branch but we won’t let you fall.” And he was right he never let us fall. He started by personally subsidizing our rent to help us through that first year. When the transmission went out on our car he lent us the big grey Lincoln to drive home to Michigan for the holidays.

Some of my favorite memories of Eli, besides that first meeting, are Easter egg hunts at the house on the hill. Coming into the lower level of that house on the hill after sledding to the stoked woodstove, hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. Eli always presided over these events with charm and generosity. Our children fondly remember the trains and player piano and looking from the deck where you could see the whole town of Pardeeville.

He was a very frugal man all of his life and I remember him beating his chest and groaning every time the church spent more money than he thought we should. I remember going out to Ella’s Deli with Eli a few months after he had open heart surgery. I ordered a cheese burger and fries then I looked over to see what Eli had ordered. He had on his plate a piece of low sodium turkey on a leaf or two of lettuce. He laughed and shrugged and eventually went back to eating Doris’ great home cooking.

I remember taking Eli with me to visit a particular parishioner. The man was very nice and polite and knew all the correct words to say, but had no sense of sin or the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. As we drove away Eli said, “I don’t think that he is a Christian.” When he said that my estimation of his wisdom, which was already exceedingly high, bounded off the charts.

There are so many things I want to say, could say, but time and space does not leave room, so I would like to finish with this. When our consciences burned hot enough for our congregations to leave the PCUSA, it seemed to me that Eli and Doris had the most to lose. They had many friends that remained behind. They had invested a great deal of their time and money into the Church downtown. About a year after we left Eli and I were together, probably in the church office looking over expenditures, me explaining. and him beating his chest, and I asked him how he was doing since our departure. He said, “I can’t believe I’ve had the privilege to see such a remarkable event, where people were willing to give up so much for what they believed. I’m just thankful I was able to be a part of it.”

It is with great joy and sadness that I say goodbye to such a warrior, and know that heaven is welcoming such a saint.